Timepiece showing the date and day of the week

ABSTRACT

A timepiece including a worm device operable to abruptly shift a drum lever. The lever, when shifted, is operable to abruptly shift date and/or time indicating means.

United States Patent Scholz 1 June 13, 1972 [54] TIMEPIECE SHOWING THE DATE AND [56] References Cited AY OF THE WEEK UNITED STATES PATENTS [72] Invent Smambe'g Germany 3,537,255 11/1970 Schneider ..58/58 [73] Assignee: Gebruder Junghans G.m.b.l-l., Schramberg Germany FOREIGN PATENTS OR APPLICATIONS 22 Filed; July 5 97 1,159,896 7/1969 Great Britain ..58/58 470,703 5/1969 Switzerland ..58/58 [21] Appl. No.1 162,780

Primary ExaminerRichard B. Wilkinson Foreign Application Priority Data Assistant Exammer-George H. Miller, Jr.

Aug. 3, 1970 Germany ..P 20 38 552.8 ABSTRACT A timepiece including a worm device operable to abruptly [52] U.S.Cl ..58/58,58/5 Shift a drum lever. The lever, when Shifted is Operable to [51] Int. Cl. ..G04b 19/24 abruptly shift date and/or time indicating means [58] Field ofSearch ..58/4, 5, 58

5 Claims, 2 Drawing Figures 1. TIMEPIECE SHOWING. THE DATE AND DAY OF THE WEEK BACKGROUND, OBJECTS AND SUMMARY The invention relates to a timepiece showing the date and day of the week. In this timepiece the pertinent data of the date and the day of the week appear in at least one window provided in the dial. The data are disposed on two elements provided with drive teeth and are disposed generally concentrically in one plane. In the timepiece, a two-armed lever is mounted which can be moved back and forth by a wheel of the watchmechanism. This lever engages with one end at a time for a brief time with one of the toothings.

A timepiece of the above mentioned type has been known (British Pat. No. l,l59,896). In this known timepiece, a rocker arm, developed as a two-armed lever, is disposed between the toothings of a date ring and the disk for the days of the week. This rocker arm is moved by a gear rotating once in 24 hours. The operation of this rocker arm requires a relatively considerable force because of the relatively considerable friction which occurs. Moreover, the construction is expensive since further elements are required in order to assure a rapid progressive advance.

The object of the invention is the creation of a timepiece of the initially mentioned type where the progressive advance of the indicator elements for date and day of the week is possible with few parts, the movement of which is accomplished with only a small power expenditure. According to the invention, this will be achieved through the fact that the two-armed lever has been mounted swivelably around an axle and made abruptly operable. The lever is biased, as a result of a return force, which strives to bring it into engagement with the toothings. A lost-motion controlled control disk or worm with a receding edge has been provided. This disk motivates, i.e. shifts the lever counter to the restoring force. At the same time, special shifting elements are provided, effectively at both ends of the shifting lever, which can engage with the toothings. Effectively, the shifting elements can be developed as flat springs.

Preferably the shifting lever carries a pin touching the circumference of the steering worm.

A control disk, or worm" has been mounted preferably freely rotatably on the shaft of a gear which rotates once in 24 hours. One of these parts (worm or wheel) carries a pin which engages with an elongated hole of the other part to provide a lost-motion" connection operable to induce abrupt shifting of the indicator elements.

DRAWINGS The invention will be explained in more detail in the following paragraphs on the basis of the drawing and an embodiment given by way of example.

In the drawing:

FIG. I shows schematically a presentation of the parts according to the invention required for the continued advance of the date elements and the elements for the days of the week;

FIG. 2 shows a fragmentary presentation of the arrangement according to FIG. 1 but at an enlarged scale.

PREFERRED EMBODIMENT In the drawing, the reference number designates a date disk, which has an inside annular tooth row 10a.

Reference number 11 designates a disk for the days of the week. Disk 11 is rotatable around a shaft" 12. The disk 11 is provided with and rigidly carries a centric gear 13.

A stop pawl 15 is associated with date ring 10. This pawl 15 is yieldably biased into teeth 10a by means of a spring 16. In the same manner, a stop pawl 17 is associated with the gear 13, and which can be swiveled around an axle 18, is yieldably forced into the teeth of gear 13 by means of a spring 19.

Between the teeth 10a and 13, there is a two-armed lever 20. Lever. 20 is mounted swivelably at pivot means 21. At the ends of its anns 20a and 20b, this lever 20 carries flat springs 22 and 23, which engage, as pawls, with toothing 10a and I3 and thus are capable of concurrently advancing the date ring 10 and the disk 11 for the days of the week. Lever 20 is nonshiftably or non-translatably supported on pivot 21.

The lever 20 is acted upon at its arm 20a by means of a spring 24. Spring 24 strives to bring lever 20.into engagement with toothing 10a and 13. The arm 20b of lever 20 fits against the circumference of a control worm 26 above a pin 27, as a result of which the movement of lever 20 is limited. Worm 26' is freely rotatably swivelable on shaft 25a of a wheel 25. This wheel 25 is driven by the timepiece mechanism at a speed of one rotation in 24 hours. The worm 26 is connected with wheel 25 via a pin 26a, carried by worm 26, which meshes with an elongated, arcuate hole 25b of wheel 25. In this manner, a Iirnited relative movement between worm 26 and wheel 25 is possible. 7

The continued shifting of date ring 10 and disk 11 for the days of the week takes place as follows:

The lever 20 is slowly swiveled by the worm 26, which is driven by wheel 25, counter to the action of spring 24, until pin 27, biased by means not shown, assumes the position shown in FIG. 1. A brief time after that pin 27, carried by lever 20, slides into the position shown by a solid line in FIG. 2, via edge 26b of worm 26. As a result of this, the lever 20 is swiveled in the direction of action of spring 24 and engages with its flat springs 22 and 23 with toothings 10a and 13. As a result of this, date ring 10 and disk 11 for the days of the week are advanced in the same direction, rather suddenly.

Edge 26b of worm 26 does not run quite in a radial direction, so that this edge will not block anything in the case of a reverse rotation of the hands.

In order that pin 27 nevertheless can drop suddenly into the position shown in FIG. 2, the above-mentioned lost-motion connection between worm 26 and wheel 25, via pin 26a and elongated hole 25b, has been provided. Just before the drop of pin 27 from worm 26, pin 26a will be in the position shown by a dash-dot line in FIG. 2. In the case of actuation or dropping of pin 27, worm 26 is turned in a clockwise direction until pin 26a assumes the position shown in FIG. 2 with a solid line.

Furthermore, a special device can also be provided with the help of which a quick shifting of the date ring 10 will be made possible.

SUMMARY OF ADVANTAGES AND SCOPE OF INVENTION The development of the continuous shifting device according to the invention results in a particularly simple construction through which the losses by friction are also substantially decreased, which is of particular importance for electric wrist watches. The continuous shifting device according to the invention is otherwise producible particularly simply and at low cost.

Those familiar with this disclosure may recognize additions, deletions, substitutions, and other modifications which would fall within the scope of the appended claims.

What is claimed is:

l. A timepiece showing the date and days of the week in which the pertinent data of the date and day of the week appear in at least one window provided in the dial, said timepiece comprising:

two elements on which said data are disposed and provided with drive teeth, said elements being disposed generally concentrically in one plane;

a two-armed lever mounted to drive each of said elements;

said lever drivingly engaging, with its ends, said drive teeth ofsaid elements;

said two-armed lever being mounted non-translatably but swivelably around an axle;

restoring means;

said lever being biased by said restoring means toward driving engagement with said teeth; and

a control worm with a receding edge;

worm-controlled operation of said lever.

5. A timepiece according to claim 4, wherein said control worm is mounted freely rotatably on a shaft;

said shaft supports a wheel which rotates once in 24 hours;

and

a lost-motion connection is provided between said control worm and said wheel, said lost-motion connection being operable to permit said wheel to abruptly rotate relative to said wonn and permit said pin to induce abrupt movement of said lever operable to abruptly drive said teeth. 

1. A timepiece showing the date and days of the week in which the pertinent data of the date and day of the week appear in at least one window provided in the dial, said timepiece comprising: two elements on which said data are disposed and provided with drive teeth, said elements being disposed generally concentrically in one plane; a two-armed lever mounted to drive each of said elements; said lever drivingly engaging, with its ends, said drive teeth of said elements; said two-armed lever being mounted non-translatably but swivelably around an axle; restoring means; said lever being biased by said restoring means toward driving engagement with said teeth; and a control worm with a receding edge; said control worm being operable to periodically actuate said lever counter to the biasing of said restoring means to drive said teeth.
 2. A timepiece according to claim 1, including spring-like shifting elements provided at the ends of the shifting lever, which shifting elements are operable to drivingly engage said teeth.
 3. A timepiece according to claim 2, wherein said shifting elements comprise flat spring means.
 4. A timepiece according to claim 1, wherein said shifting lever carries a control pin, said control pin being engaged by the circumference of said control worm in order to provide worm-controlled operation of said lever.
 5. A timepiece according to claim 4, wherein said control worm is mounted freely rotatably on a shaft; said shaft supports a wheel which rotates once in 24 hours; and a lost-motion connection is provided between said control worm and said wheel, said lost-motion connection being operable to permit said wheel to abruptly rotate relative to said worm and permit said pin to induce abrupt movement of said lever operable to abruptly drive said teeth. 